Clark Preston
Mayoral candidate |path = Proxy Killer Proxy Rapist Criminal Accomplice |mo = Varied proxy murder |victims = 19 killed by proxy 1 attempted by proxy 1 raped by proxy |status = Incarcerated |actor = Paul Johansson |appearance = "A Thin Line" }} Clark Preston is a psychopathic mayoral candidate and proxy killer, and one-time proxy rapist who appears in the Season Seven episode "A Thin Line," in which he manipulated Trevor Mills in his serial killings. Background Nothing is known about Preston's background, other than he is a closet psychopath and at some point became a candidate for Mayor. A businessman dealing with real-estate, Preston was greedy for money, which culminated in him formulating a scheme to create a crime wave he would gain money from when property values went down as a result, during 2002. He started by hiring Ronnie Green and Carlos Jackson to invade the home of Trevor Mills and his family. Green and Jackson did, and in the end, Trevor's father and sister were killed and his mother Pamela was raped and critically wounded to a near-vegetative state. Trevor escaped by hiding in a closet. Preston's scheme apparently failed when Green and Jackson were eventually caught and sentenced to life in prison for the attack. They had claimed that they had been paid to commit the attack, but it couldn't be proven. In order to receive some sort of benefit from the attack, he started supporting Trevor and Pamela, and also gained money from the latter, who used her disability check to donate money. Meanwhile, Trevor began idolizing Preston to a point where he adopted what he believed to be his racist beliefs as his own. Ten years after the Mills tragedy, Preston devised a new scheme to gain money and became a politician. However, his attempt to become a member of the local city council a year prior to the episode failed. A Thin Line In 2012, Preston started a mayoral campaign. He convinced Trevor to commit a string of home invasions and murders that seemed to be the work of gangs whose members were of ethnic minorities, to which he would then use the crimes as arguments for his campaign. When the BAU is called in to investigate, they interrogate Preston after seeing one of his speeches to get rid of gangs if Trevor's murders are to be stopped. Told to stop promoting his arguments in order to stop the unsub from getting more inspiration, Preston turns them down and leaves, to which the BAU began to suspect him of some sort of involvement. Preston later visits Trevor and Pamela, giving the latter flowers, and then instructs Trevor that they need to "time their moves". Instead, an impatient Trevor kills another family the following night but leaves behind a witness. Beginning to feel the heat, Preston tells Trevor to stay away from him. Meanwhile, Garcia finds out about Preston's involvement in the attack of the Mills family. When Trevor is killed by Morgan after he tries to kill Preston's rival candidate, Rossi, and Hotch arrest him in front of his campaign staff as he constantly denies any involvement. He is presumably incarcerated afterwards. Known Victims **Robert Mills **Pamela Mills **Julie Mills *The 2012 shootings committed by Trevor Mills: **February 16: The first home invasion: ***The Mitchell family ****Brian Mitchell ****The unnamed mother ****Two unnamed sons ***Alex Collison **February 20: The second home invasion: ***The Lewis family ****Matt Lewis ****Trisha Lewis ****Mackenzie Lewis ****Blake LewisThough Blake Lewis's first name is more common as a male name, it has been said several times she was a girl ***Ronald Underwood **February 22: The third home invasion: ***Charles and Karen Nelson: ****Charles Nelson ****Karen Nelson ***Pedro Mendez **February 23: The fourth home invasion: ***The Wilson family ****The unnamed parents ****Billy Wilson ****Kelly Wilson ***Ramon Gomez }} Notes *Preston seems to have been inspired by Ray Campion ("The Performer") - Both are psychopathic proxy killers with an emotionally unstable proxy (Trevor Mills in Preston's case, Gina King in Campion's), whom they manipulated into becoming serial killers, both of which were used by them as promotion of some kind (Preston wanted to promote his Mayor campaign, Campion wanted to promote his music album), and were both apprehended by the BAU and (presumably) incarcerated. Appearances *Season Seven **"A Thin Line" References Category:Criminal Minds Characters Category:Criminals Category:Season Seven Criminals Category:Proxy Killers Category:Psychopaths Category:Criminal Accomplices Category:Incarcerated Criminals Category:Narcissists